Sirens in Bliss

Chapter Twelve:

Leo, Shelley, and Wolf

Shelley stepped out on to the porch and looked over the grounds of the Talbot mansion. It was almost dusk. Her shower was just about done. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize the moment. The afternoon had been sweet, filled with friends old and new. She wanted to remember everything.

Except the crap with her mother-in-law.

She enjoyed the silence for a moment and then her eyes got wide as she opened them because a big black truck pulled up, carefully maneuvering its way through the multitude of cars parked on the driveway and lawn. It drove past the circular drive and up to what looked to be the guesthouse.

Jennifer Talbot hurried across the lawn as though she’d been expecting that truck to show up. She stopped when she got to the truck bed, looked down, and then began to unleash holy hell on the men who stepped out of the truck.

The cowboys held up their identical hands as though pointing to each other to take the blame.

Shelley couldn’t hear the argument, but there was no way Jennifer was happy with whatever they had done.

She turned away and wondered if Leo and Wolf were having fun at their party. Shelley loved spending time with all the women from Bliss and her friends from back home, but she was craving a couple of minutes to herself. The wedding had become the whole center of their world, and she couldn’t wait to get back to focusing on her men. She missed their mornings together.

Leo would get up first, putting on the coffee for her while he went on the balcony and practiced some yoga. She would get up and watch him, his lean and limber body moving with such grace.

Then Wolf would walk in, scratching his belly. He would lie down on the couch, put his head in her lap, and go back to sleep for a while.

She missed those sweet mornings. What would mornings be like when she had some kids? Would it be hectic and chaotic? Or would she find a deep peace in sitting down with her family and eating breakfast?

The way she had with her momma and daddy and Trev. Her mom and dad were gone now, but there had been a piercing sweetness to sitting across from her brother and having him pass her the syrup.

And now Trev was a dad. He had a baby girl. Shelley was an aunt. It was a responsibility she didn’t take for granted. She had a place in that girl’s life. She just wasn’t sure it was a good one.

Was she really still afraid of her choices? Had Bryce damaged her so badly that she was worried about what she would do to a child?

“Ma’am?” A masculine voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

Shelley turned and saw a man walking across the porch. He was dressed in jeans and a Western-style shirt. His hair was gray and cut in a severe style. She didn’t recognize him at all. “If you’re looking for the men’s party, you’ll have to go up the mountain.”

He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be welcome up there, but I might have better luck with you.”

“With me?” She kind of didn’t like the sound of that. Had Cassidy sent another crazy to plead her case?

“Yes. You’re Shelley McNamara, ain’t you?” His eyes narrowed, looking her up and down.

Yeah, she really didn’t like that look. And now Jennifer Talbot was gone and there was no one on the lawn. She definitely didn’t like how quiet it was. She could hear the party going on in the back, but she’d been through enough crap in her lifetime to know when it was all right to be alone with a man she didn’t know.

Never.

“I think I saw her in the back. I’ll go get her for you.” He might be the kindest man on the planet, but she wasn’t taking chances.

She started to move toward the door to the house, but he stepped in her way.

“I know you’re Shelley and I know you’re marrying my boys.”

That stopped her in her tracks. “You’re Leo and Wolf’s dad?”

He shrugged a little. “Not that they acknowledge it. Probably best for them, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on a little family time with them. Leo is being real stubborn about everything. He’s just like his good-for-nothing mother.”

Tears pricked at the back of her eyes, but they weren’t about sadness. Anger started to burn through her. She knew exactly what it felt like to be told she was useless. Bryce had tried to make her feel utterly worthless. She’d wasted years on him, trying to be a good wife when there was nothing she could do.

Had Cassidy’s husband done the same?

“What do you want?”

He put a hand on his hip and stared at her for a moment as though trying to assess the best way to answer the question. “I want what’s coming to me. Now the way I see it, you three have yourself a mighty nice setup. You all work for that fancy city slicker, the one with all the money.”

“Are you talking about Julian Lodge?”

“Yeah, that fellow. I read about him. He’s got a pretty wife.”

He was really setting off her every ick factor. If the man in front of her knew exactly what Julian Lodge would do to him if he laid a hand on Dani, he wouldn’t think she was so pretty. He would think she looked like his painful death. “What about Julian?”

“My boys both work for him, right? When I heard about this wedding, I did a little checking because I thought it was weird that Stef Talbot would be hosting my white trash boys. Turns out they ain’t so white trash anymore.”

She hated the term. She’d grown up fairly poor and in the South, so she’d been called by that name more than once. “They’ve been very successful.”

“Real rich now. Leo’s got some sort of fancy degree. He was always a smart kid. Must have got that from me. Wolf is just as dumb as his momma, though. If I went to him, he would probably just try to kick my ass. So I have to think you’re going to be the reasonable one. I mean, you like your life, dontcha, girl?”

Yep, her rage was getting pretty volcanic now, but she put a blank face on. Leo had been keeping this from her, and maybe from Wolf. She knew why he was doing it. He was trying to make sure their wedding was as happy as possible for her, but it looked like she would be the one handling this small problem. Because there was no way she was letting this asswipe anywhere near her men again. He’d done enough damage. She needed to find out what his plan was. “I like my life a lot.”

His eyes roamed up and down her body, making her wish she had a turtleneck sweater on and maybe a suit of armor. How this man had produced the two kindest men she knew, Shelley had no idea.

Except she suddenly did. Cassidy had made them kind. Cassidy had raised them to be gentlemen and true friends to all those around them. DNA had nothing to do with it. Cassidy’s will and perseverance had ruled the day.

“Well, the way I look at it, you should probably want to keep that nice life with your pretty clothes and shoes and such.”

“I intend to.”

“What would that fancy boss of yours say if he knew where Leo and Wolf came from? It looks to me like my boys have him fooled. I don’t know how they know Talbot, but they probably have him fooled, too. You’re moving around in high society, but that society won’t keep you for long once they find out that Leo and Wolf come from a man who spent more time in prison than he did out of it.”

If Julian Lodge didn’t already know that, she would eat her Jimmy Choos. But she played along, letting a horrified look cross her face. “Prison?”

“Yes, girl. I done a nice bit of time and for some pretty ugly crimes. That Julian fellow might be open-minded when it comes to you sleeping with both boys, but how is he going to feel about a criminal’s son watching over his daughter?”

Wolf’s job was security for Dani and Chloe. He also watched over Finn when Julian was worried about one of his cases. It was obvious to Shelley that Robert Meyer hadn’t really done his homework. He’d looked up Julian Lodge and seen exactly what Julian had wanted him to see—an upscale businessman with a beautiful wife and daughter. It was the image Julian presented to reporters. The last thing the very private Julian would want was newspaper stories about his ménage lifestyle.

On the surface, Julian might look like the type of man who would be horrified to discover his seemingly steady bodyguard actually had a dark past. Many businessmen in his position would immediately fire the bodyguard and find someone more suitable.

Julian Lodge would just shoot Robert Meyer and consider the world a better place.

She managed to sniffle a little. “What are you saying? You’re going to tell Julian?”

“I’m just saying that a man like that would probably rather fire a problem than deal with it. I don’t think it would look too good for Leo and Wolf if I showed up on Julian’s doorstep. Or if I started talking to the papers. Tell me something, is that bitch still crazy?”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

“Their momma. What kind of medication does Leo have her doped up on so she could meet with these people?”

“These people” all seemed to accept Cassidy for who she was. Maybe if Shelley had been around “these people,” she wouldn’t have stayed in a terrible marriage for as long as she had.

God, she had so much more in common with her almost mother-in-law than she’d dreamed of. And she owed her so much. She was just starting to realize that. She’d thought, in the beginning, that Cassidy was someone she had to put up with. Maybe Cassidy was someone she could learn a whole lot from.

“He doesn’t have her on any medication.”

Robert snorted, a wholly nasty sound. “Now I know you’re lying. She was crazy when I married her. And I still hear the rumors all over the county. Everyone still talks about her. She was lucky no one took those kids from her. Everyone knew how loony she was. She’s the biggest joke around.”

Shelley wanted to slap the son of a bitch, but she’d already decided on her plan of action. It required a little more acting. “What do you want from us?”

“To stop me from going to Lodge or from going to the newspapers and making you the laughingstock of the country? Wouldn’t that be a good story? Woman sleeps with two brothers. You don’t want everyone calling you a whore, do you?”

Once they got a look at her men, most women would just high-five her. And she really didn’t care who called her what, but she liked her privacy. “No, I don’t. What do you want to keep quiet?”

She could only imagine what Leo had threatened him with. And he was damn lucky he hadn’t gone to Wolf. Wolf wouldn’t have talked. Wolf would have shot first.

“I’m thinking ten thousand would keep me pretty quiet.”

Not for long, though, Shelley supposed. It wasn’t her first incident with blackmailers. Her first husband had used her decorating business to gain entry into high-powered officials’ homes so he could bug them and use what he found out to drain the politicians and businessmen dry.

So she was pretty sure Robert Meyer would take his ten grand, spend it, and show back up in Dallas looking for more.

Unless she proved to him that it just wasn’t worth his while. She sniffled again and placed her hand over her mouth as though she was trying not to cry.

“You can take care of this, Shelley,” he said, standing far too close to her. “You can just go and get me a check and then you don’t have to see me again.”

She managed to nod and step away. “I have a checkbook in my purse.”

She stepped around him, keeping her eyes on the floor so he didn’t see the burning hatred she was pretty sure was in her eyes. She stepped back into the house and immediately ran into Rachel Harper.

“Hey, I’m so sorry about the whole Cassidy thing. She’s really sweet. She just kind of has this thing about aliens. I promise to have tooth whitening mouthwash waiting for you.”

She wasn’t even thinking about that right now. She was only thinking about the fact that if she didn’t explain to that fucker what the real situation was, he might show up at her Beeting Ceremony, and apparently that meant a lot to Cassidy. She wasn’t about to allow her crazy, prove-you’re-not-an-alien-queen party to be interrupted by a douche lord. “Do you have a gun?”

Rachel’s eyes went wide and then her mouth turned down. “Of course not. That would probably be silly.”

“Because I need a gun and I don’t carry one.”

Rachel looked back up, her eyes assessing. “Is this one of those ‘make fun of the country people’ things?”

Shelley wasn’t sure what she meant so the truth was all she could offer. “No, this is one of those ‘I need to shoot someone’ things.”

Her mouth curled up in a happy smile. “Oh, thank god. Yeah, it’s in my purse. Do you know how to use it? Who are we shooting? Because I’ve got one in the car, too. If we can wait a couple of minutes, I can call Marie and we can get the whole crew out here.”

“Crew?”

Rachel nodded. “The ‘I Shot a Son of a Bitch’ club. We meet every second Tuesday. I do take it we’re shooting a son of a bitch. Wait. We’re not shooting Wolf, right? I don’t know the other one so I could probably shoot him.”

“No. We’re not shooting my men. We’re shooting their no-good, blackmailing, criminal, nasty-ass father who looked at my boobs the whole time he was threatening to ruin my life.”

Rachel got her purse from the bar. “Oh, we can totally shoot him. Should I call the crew to hide the body or are we going to go with self-defense?”

The strawberry blonde, who looked to be about four months pregnant, pulled a nice-sized revolver out of what looked to be her baby bag. She blushed a little as she wiped off the handle. “Sorry. Paige’s diaper rash cream comes open sometimes. Here you go.”

Luckily, Wolf had been taking her to the shooting range. She snapped the safety off, checked the bullets, and was ready to go. “And I’m not actually going to hit him. I just want to be sure he won’t come back.”

Rachel followed her to the door. “I’m just saying that killing is usually the way to go. They don’t normally come back no matter what Nell says about restless spirits and killing bringing about bad karma.”

Shelley took a deep breath. She really hoped she didn’t actually shoot the man. Something told her it would be bad to have to get married in the Bliss County jail, but she was willing to take that risk.

She threw open the door and he was still standing there, a smug smile on his face. He was deeply unhandsome, his character somehow showing through the lines and planes of his body.

“You got my money, girl?”

Shelley took great delight in aiming that revolver right at his head. “I got everything I’m ever going to give you right here.”

He gasped and backed up, his hands coming up. “Now, we should talk about this.”

“Oh, I am so done talking with you, but I will make a few things plain.”

He went an unnatural shade of red. “You don’t want your nice friend there to call the police on you, do you?” He pointed behind her, indicating Rachel.

“Oh, she’s just going to shoot you. I told her she should totally kill you and we could make up a really good story about it. Lexi’s in the back, isn’t she? She’s a writer. She can make something up really fast. And there are about a million places to bury your body up on my mountain.” She looked out over the yard. “Hey, Max! Rye! Come on over here, babies. We might need you to carry some shit for us!”

Robert Meyer was sweating, his feet shuffling. “You don’t want to shoot me.”

“Oh, I totally want to shoot you. And if you ever come near my family again, I will. And you should be glad I’m the one delivering this message and not Julian Lodge. I have no doubt in my mind that Julian knows more about you than my husbands do, and he won’t hesitate to take you out if you threaten any member of his family. And trust me, he considers my husbands family.”

“Hey.” One of the twin cowboys from the truck came walking up. He pointed to Robert. “You’re that motherfucker from Trio this morning. I thought for sure the shrink and I had scared you away.”

Rachel stared at her husband, one hand on her hip. “What the hell were you doing at Trio? I thought I smelled Zane’s wing sauce on you!”

The big cowboy shook his head, going a little pale. “No, baby. I was getting myself shrunk. I was talking to that Leo guy about all the things that are wrong with me. I know I have mental problems.”

“You liar.” Rachel held her hand out. “I’m going to need that gun back, Shelley.”

But she hadn’t made her point yet. “In a minute.”

She planted her feet the way Wolf had taught her, took careful aim at a place to his left, and fired.

There was a loud scream and Robert Meyer covered his faced and dropped to his knees, though not before Shelley saw the front of his pants suddenly stain and turn wet.

Yes, she’d made her point.

“You told me you had oatmeal at Stella’s.” The other twin didn’t seem at all bothered that she’d nearly killed a man. He was only concerned with yelling at his brother. “Goddamn it, Max.”

Max held his ground. “Well, it’s not fair that you get to eat fried foods and I don’t. I don’t understand why I got the bad cholesterol DNA. It should have been you.”

“Please don’t kill me.” For a man who had apparently spent a lot of time committing crimes, Robert Meyer seemed really scared of guns.

“That’s up to you.” Shelley took a couple of steps his way, standing over him. “If you come near me or mine again, I’ll shoot you and I won’t miss next time. Am I understood? The next time you threaten my life, I’ll take yours. And if you think you can go to the papers, think again. Julian will just buy them and shut the fuckers down. Now get out of here.”

He got shakily to his feet and managed to run down the stairs and across the yard.

“And I hate oatmeal, Rye. It tastes like cardboard even when I put a cup of sugar in it,” Max was yelling.

“And I hate the thought of you having a heart attack.” Rachel was getting right up in her husband’s face. “So I’ll just shoot you now and put myself out of my misery.”

She sounded really serious. Shelley watched as her nemesis ran into the woods and disappeared. Maybe he would get eaten by a bear and all her troubles would be solved.

That man had hurt her mother-in-law. She didn’t need to hear the story to know. It was plain that this was a man who enjoyed hurting others. He would have loved hurting his wife. He was a man who likely would have enjoyed hurting his kids.

They would have been vulnerable, small and easy to hurt. A man like Robert Meyer would have felt powerful having small kids to torture.

Unless someone had fought back. Unless someone had loved her children so much, she found the strength to break out of her cycle.

She was so going to eat that beet. She would eat it down and thank her mother-in-law for the chance to enjoy it.

“Shelley, I need my gun. My dumbass husband wants to die,” Rachel said.

“I don’t want to die,” Max shot back. “I just wanted to eat something tasty. You’ve fed me salad for two weeks. I’m wasting away. A man needs meat.”

The door to the house flew open and most of the garden party was suddenly on the porch.

“We thought we heard gunfire.” Callie looked down at the revolver in Shelley’s hand.

“No one’s dead,” Shelley explained. “Though I think Rachel might kill one of her husbands.” It was time to help out her new friend. She walked up to Rachel, handing her back her gun. She was pretty sure the blonde wouldn’t actually kill her wing-loving hubby. “I have a great cookbook. It’s low-salt and low-cholesterol versions of comfort foods. Wolf used to eat like a five-year-old. It gave him high blood pressure. Trust me. After not being able to eat anything but salad and fruit for a couple of weeks, those recipes seemed heavenly to him. He never even realized that his new mashed potatoes were cauliflower.”

Rachel turned back to her. “Really?”

She pulled the last ace in her deck. “And I lost five pounds.”

A smile hit the blonde’s face. “That’s sounds perfect. And if you ever decide to kill your son of a bitch, we’ll help you hide the body.”

“Rachel, I’ve already had one body in the back of my truck today because Max had to do a favor for Jen. I just got it detailed,” Rye complained.

The Harpers were an interesting family.

But she needed to focus on her own. As the Harpers started to argue about whether or not Rye’s precious truck should be used in criminal activity, Shelley turned back to Callie Hollister-Wright. She seemed like a woman in the know.

“Hey, can we talk about Cassidy?”

Callie’s eyes widened. “Sure. You’re not going to shoot her, right?”

“Not at all, but I would like to understand her better. After all, she’s going to be my momma after I prove to her I’m not using her boys to propagate an alien race.”

Callie smiled and led her back to the bar. A good stiff drink was definitely called for.